This is a record of my journey as a Muslim. I used to be Catholic and belonged to a missionary organisation. After my conversion, I sat on the board of a Muslim converts' organisation and specialised in da'wah programmes, convert management, interfaith issues and apostasy cases. I am an initiate of a Sufi order. As such, the articles and writings tend to cover these areas.
All the Arabic and graphics could not have been done without the help of my wife, Zafirah.

Friday, 13 January 2017

How the Shi'ah Arrived at the Infallibility of the Imamate

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Considering the Imamate according to Shi’ism,
lexically, the word, “Shi’ah” means, “adherent,”
“answer”, such that the related word,
“partisanship,” “tashayyu’”, denotes
the victory of one over another, “al-intiswar”. Historically, the word, “Shi’ah” refers to the supporters of ‘Ali ibn Abi Thalib (k.w.).
The term refers to the explicit conviction that the right to the
caliphate fell only to ‘Ali (k.w.)
and his children. They differed amongst
themselves, thereafter, as to which among his descendants had priority: the
Zaydis asserted the Imamate through the third-generation descendent, Imam Zayd
ibn ‘Ali ibn al-Husayn (q.s.); the
Isma’ilis asserted the Imamate through the seventh-generation descendent, Imam
Isma’il ibn Ja’far asw-Swadiq (q.s.)
and the Twelver, Itsna ‘Ashari,
Shi’ites asserted the Imamate through Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-‘Askari (q.s.).

The Twelver Shi’ites hold that the authority of
the Imamate is one of the fundamental principles of religion that do not admit
rational interpretation and, therefore, is not subject to independent
judgement, ijtihad. Nor are ancillary
matters related to it subject to such independent judgement, although they may
admit rational interpretation. That is,
choosing the leader, imam, is not
achieved by election through the pledged allegiance, bay’ah, of the community as the Ahl
as-Sunnah wa al-Jama’ah hold, but rather through Divine Appointment and
textual designation, from proof-texts drawn from the Qur’an and sunnah.
The pledged allegiance is subsequent to and dependent on this Divine
Appointment. Shi’ites narrate various
textual proofs for this position, among them the hadits of the pond of Khumm: “Whosoever I am his master, so too
‘Ali is his master.” Likewise, they
advance rational proofs, including that the orthodox community, being comprised
merely of a multitude of fallible individuals, is not immune from mistakes, and
that mistakes in this matter of choosing the leader yield nothing less than
chaos and social disintegration. For
these reasons, among others, this matter must be effected through Divine
Appointment and thereby secured against the fallibility of the populace.

Given that they were Divinely Appointed, the a’immah are understood to be Protected
from error. Shi’ites adduce both textual
and rational proofs for this doctrine, including respectively Allah’s (s.w.t.)
Address to Abraham (a.s.):

And remember that Abraham
was Tried by his Lord with certain Commands, which he fulfilled; He Said, “I
will Make thee an imam to the nations.”
He pleaded, “And also (a’immah)
from my offspring!” He Answered, “But My
Promise is not within the reach of evil-doers.” (Surah al-Baqarah:124)

Allah (s.w.t.)
is Very Clear that His Covenant does not include wrongdoers and the argument
that the infallibility of the a’immah
interrupts the infinite regress of moral culpability that otherwise obtains.